Donors, Democracy and Development in Africa: Western Aid and Political Repression

Uganda, Ethiopia and Rwanda have figured prominently in the post- Cold War relations between Western donors and Sub-Saharan Africa. Their ‘new leaders’ were embraced by Western countries as the antithesis of former Cold War-era African strongmen, and their countries became ‘donor darlings’, benefitting from regular and significant inflows of Western development assistance. To the dismay of African democracy activists and human rights defenders, such aid enabled the regimes in these countrie...